David W. Plocher, MD, senior vice president, business intelligence, informatics and pharmacy management, and chief medical officer, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota

David W. Plocher, MD
Senior Vice President, Business Intelligence, Informatics and Pharmacy Management, and Chief Medical Officer
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota
Eagan, Minnesota

In 2005, he joined the health plan and soon began redesigning the Healthway's DM program with the help of an informatics and health management team. They transformed DM by eliminating diseases that did not yield changes in resource consumption; added others such as oncology, back pain and depression; and changed enrollment from an opt out to an opt in method requiring consent.

Dr. Plocher earned both is undergraduate and medical degrees with honors from the University of Minnesota. He recently was named one of the "100 Most Influential People in Healthcare" by the Minnesota Medical Association.

He also has written two chapters for the The Essentials of Managed Care, Fifth Edition edited by Peter Kongstvedt, who says he does not know anybody who has greater overall knowledge of DM than David Plocher."